Where port founders dreamed of building oil refineries and chemical plants, their successors now travel the world promoting imports and exports of cars, turbines and break-bulk commodities.

San Diego Bay was a filthy place, polluted by untreated sewage. There now are beaches at the water’s edge.

“If you go back and look at an aerial photo of San Diego Bay in 1962, you’d be struck by the physical differences,” said outgoing Port Chairman Lou Smith.

But some things haven’t changed.

The Navy’s still here and expects to enlarge its presence as the Pentagon pivots to the Pacific.

The public still complains about Lindbergh Field traffic and noise, though the port no longer runs the airport.

And the port cities and their residents squabble with the port staff when priorities collide.

But perhaps, that’s what the Legislature had in mind when it passed the San Diego Unified Port District Act: “For the promotion of commerce, navigation, fisheries and recreation thereon, may (a port district) be established...”

Those four purposes often conflict, and the port and its seven port commissioners constantly juggle what goal should outweigh another.

Retired state Sen. James R. Mills, D-Coronado, who co-sponsored the enabling act in his first term in the Assembly, says the primary purpose at the outset was to develop a maritime terminal at the foot of 24th Street in National City, because space was limited at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal that the previous San Diego Harbor Commission had developed a few years earlier.

This was in line with a 19th century vision of San Diego Bay as a working port — full of docks, shipyards, tankers and cargo ships.

But the “recreation” part of the port’s marching orders soon took precedence. The district became the most profitable port on the West Coast, thanks to lucrative leases for hotel, restaurant and retail properties. The current budget anticipates $81.9 million in income from real estate, only $33.1 million from maritime operations.

Just to drive home the point, San Diego’s 2010 trade volume amounted to 1.3 million tons, compared with Los Angeles-Long Beach at 137.8 million tons. San Diego ranked 124th out of 148 ports, L.A.-Long Beach, fourth.

“We’ll never be a megaport,” says UC San Diego political scientist Steve Erie, who studies ports. “We’re never going to compete with L.A.-Long Beach. That is a pipe dream, the San Diego story of dashed hopes and dreams.”

But romantic dreams of yachts and stevedores, cruise ships and fishermen remain alive.

The next 50 years, port officials and the public say, will bring more of everything — maritime business, big-spending tourists, colorful festivals on the waters and places to fish, swim and stroll.

But there are some serious questions to be answered if the port is to remain relevant in 21st century San Diego and a global economy.

Can there be more high-paying jobs in what Mayor Bob Filner calls the sea-based “blue economy?” Will San Diegans cherish the port in the face of hordes of out-of-town visitors in still more high-rise hotels lining the Embarcadero?

In short, will the Big Bay boom and blossom as the West Coast’s most multitasked outlet on the Pacific? Or will environmental concerns clash with business interests and check the drive toward a bay in balance.

Current facilities: 10th Avenue Marine Terminal in San Diego, 96 acres, opened in 1958; National City Maritime Terminal at 24th Street, 230 acres opened in 1969

Port President and CEO Wayne Darbeau says the port’s niche is break-bulk cargo, stuff that doesn’t go in containers.

“We’re the largest break-bulk port in California and expect that to increase by doing a few things,” Darbeau said.

Immediately ahead is the demolition of half of one of the indoor sheds at 10th Avenue to make room for more lay-down space for things that don’t need to be stored inside.

Longer term are plans to build a direct freeway connection so that traffic does not have to flow through Barrio Logan.

In the meantime, Darbeau and his maritime staff travel to ports around the world to drum up business from exporters.

“We live in a global world and San Diego is poised to seize the moment,” he said.

Big challenge ahead: The widening of the Panama Canal in 2014 threatens to divert traffic away from West Coast ports. It remains to be seen if San Diego benefits or suffers from this $5.25 billion investment.

Current facilities: Some 800 leases on port property range from hotels, shops and restaurants to boatyards, yacht clubs and brokerages. There are 16 hotels with about 7,800 rooms; 22 acres of land for restaurants; and 33 acres of specialty retail outlets.

The biggest project on the drawing boards is the $520 million third phase of the San Diego Convention Center expansion, due to open in 2016. New hotels are planned next to the center and at the foot of Broadway on the North Embarcadero.

Other hotel sites have been looked at on Harbor Island and aging hotel and retail properties are expected to be rebuilt or replaced in coming years.

“Our leasing policy encourages leaseholders to come in with redevelopment concepts before the last 20 percent of their lease term, so we can have continued improvements and investments in these properties,” said Randa Coniglio, executive vice president of operations.

But port critics like Don Wood, a member of various organizations pushing for more public access to the bay, worry that commercial concerns overshadow public facilities and opportunities.

“My concern is that the port has made such a priority to serving the tenants that serving the citizens of San Diego gets lost,” Wood said.

Navy

Navy SEAL candidates set out on a three-mile run in the sand after finishing the obstacle course at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado.
— Howard Lipin

Navy SEAL candidates set out on a three-mile run in the sand after finishing the obstacle course at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado.
— Howard Lipin

Current facilities: Naval bases at North Island, the Silver Strand, the 32nd Street base, Fort Rosecrans-Point Loma, the Navy Broadway Complex, Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Coast Guard occupy 1,882 acres of land and 1,050 acres of water in the state tidelands. They were acquired through purchase, voter approval, condemnation, long-term leases or federal reservation since the 1850s.

Exempt from port approval or oversight, the Navy and Marine Corps nevertheless are subject to some review by the California Coastal Commission and have to accommodate commercial shipping, recreational boating and other activities in the civilian sector.

In the 1974 seminal city study “Temporary Paradise?” the authors recommended that the military uses on the bay, as well as the airport, should give way to urban development as a way to make the waterfront fully usable by the public.

But in the next 50 years, given the Pentagon’s “pivot” to the Pacific Rim, no one expects anchors aweigh.

“I see the Navy and port of San Diego as having mutually compatible missions,” said Darbeau, the port CEO. “However, we always have competing interests. What we have are mutual interests in this vibrant Navy town, a strategic port that is literally critical to its role in the nation.”

“Our problems are their problems, and theirs are ours,” the Coronado resident said.

In the immediate future is a clash between the Navy and coastal commission over redevelopment plans for the Navy Broadway Complex, which has been leased to U-T publisher and developer Douglas F. Manchester. The commission withdrew its approval of the 16-acre master plan, and the Navy has indicated it will not resubmit new plans. It’s unknown if and when a legal fight might ensue.

Less controversial is a port study of deep-water berthing needs around the bay and what new dredging, if any, is needed to serve both port and naval interests.

In 50 years the port has transformed industrial zones to open space for the public to enjoy.

Even now the $28.6 million North Embarcadero Visionary Plans’ first phase is taking shape at downtown San Diego’s “front porch,” turning unsightly parking lots and narrow sidewalks into a wide-open picturesque promenade

And the quantity of parkland is planned to nearly double when the Chula Vista Bayfront master plan is implemented and more than 200 acres of parks and open space are developed between E Street and the J Street Marina.

On the environmental side, the Navy has led the way to halting pollution from ships in the bay. And before that, the federal government financed the city’s construction of the Point Loma sewage treatment plant to divert sewage from the bay.

“The port of the future is a green port,” said Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition. “It’s one that has an environmental sustainability plan that includes a climate-change plan. They’re working on climate mitigation and adaptation. It’s got to take real actions that actually reduce green house gases that allow us to meet state goals.”

The Carnival Spirit pulls out bound for a five-day Baja California cruise. The Board of Port Commissioners represent their five cities individually but most look out for the interest of the entire port as a whole. Inevitably conflicts arise between city and port-wide issues.
— John R. McCutchen

The Carnival Spirit pulls out bound for a five-day Baja California cruise. The Board of Port Commissioners represent their five cities individually but most look out for the interest of the entire port as a whole. Inevitably conflicts arise between city and port-wide issues.
— John R. McCutchen

The San Diego Unified Port District is unique among local governmental agencies.

Its controls land within five cities: Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City — and San Diego. But those cities have only indirect influence on the board of port commissioners.

Three commissioners are appointed by the San Diego City Council and one each from each of the other cities. They are not council members but residents. They are responsible for carrying out the state law that set up the district, and their actions are subject to review by the State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission. But they have been replaced when they did not heed changing political winds in their local cities.

Former Sen. James R. Mills, who was a co-author of the 1962 enabling act, said he would constitute the board differently today.

He wouldn’t have the people elect the board directly, as is the case with the state Board of Equalization, or require elected officials to serve on the board, as with the San Diego Association of Governments.

“I would have said the city of San Diego should have four representatives, equal to the representation of the other four, which have a fraction of the population and tax base,” Mills said.

That way, the smaller cities couldn’t overrule San Diego and San Diego couldn’t run roughshod over them.

Some outsiders have suggested that the port as a separate jurisdiction is outmoded and power should return to the individual cities.

Citizen activist Don Wood said breaking up the port would lead to more piecemeal planning, not less.